"Nantes: not what I expected, but worth it in the end" Past Review
By Sean C (French language and literature, Saint Anselm College) for
IES Abroad: Nantes - French Language Immersion & Area Studies
The experience was worthwhile, but what was surprising to me at the beginning of the program was that I learned more about myself and about personal things unrelated to French and academics than I did about other things. I learned about the type of people I should associate with, and I learned very much about my personal strategies for coping with conflict and failure. I knew I already wanted to work with French for graduate school and for my career, since I'm a French major, but this really solidified to me in my head that it's a possible and worthwhile pursuit.
Personal Information
| If you took classes at multiple universities, list those universities here: | Université de Nantes |
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 2 weeks - 1 month |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
Besides the aforementioned challenge of the poetry class, the workload and the classes were all easy, or inconsistent in their ability to interest me. The grading system was often boosted for what seemed to me to make it so that teachers didn't have to give students bad grades. The French educational system has its advantages, but this program combined some of the less-desirable aspects of the French and American systems, and it was too lenient and not challenging enough (for the most part) for me. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
This is the strength of IES Abroad's program in Nantes; the staff at the center are some of the nicest people I've met. They were accessible and supportive as they should have been, but they were consistently so for the entirety of the program. They got things done, and they were very knowledgeable about America, the English language, and about both North American and European university life. As for the program statistics: the program consisted of sixty female students and eight male students. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
Everything was fine in concern to the neighborhood, the house itself and its rooms, and the proximity to the center of the city; with this, I was fine with the meals, the environment, my room, the bathrooms, and all of that. I had a negative experience with my host mother, who was not at all welcoming or helpful. In fact, she was cold, stern, and unusually strict, even taking into account intercultural differences and sensitivity. I let IES Abroad know (through evaluation sheets and through personal contact) about this. |
| * Food: |
I was very satisfied with the quality of the French food I ate, whether it was more like fast food, finer dining, or in the middle. The Bouffay quarter is a really good place to go for bars and for nice restaurants in Nantes. Even though I wasn't satisfied with my host family experience, the food that my host mother prepared was always of good quality. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
The trips were all good. I don't have anything specific to mention about them, but, whether it involved the trips to castles in the region or my own planned vacations to both Marseille and Bordeaux, I enjoyed what I planned and what my friends and I did. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
It's all about common sense: make sure to stay with friends and not to separate late at night, since people walking alone are often targets for trouble, unfortunately. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
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| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | I can't give specifics, since money is so personal to each student and to their families and financial aid situations, but I did spend more money that I thought I would. Still, as I tend to spend a lot anyway, this didn't surprise me much. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Transportation was the only domain for which prices were higher than what I expected. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | Fluent |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | 300 to 400 advanced level French language and literature courses |
| If applicable, to what degree did your living situation aid your language acquisition? |
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| Language acquisition improvement? |
Being that Nantes is not a strongly anglophone city, I was able to speak French with strangers and people I encountered in the city every day, multiple times a day. I needed to use French all of the time in order to get things done, as well as to shop, order food, and to get around town. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | Just be self-sufficient and confident in yourself, and you'll do well. Don't rely too much on friends to make you happy, and be discerning as to who should matter: you should be able to make close and enduring friendships here. |
Individual Course Reviews
| Course Name/Rating: |
Théâtre pratique |
| Course Department: | |
| Instructor: | M. Henri Mariel |
| Instruction Language: | French |
| Comments: | This class involved the eight of us who took it putting on a show in early December in a theatre in Nantes. This class was by far the worst class I've ever taken in a college setting; it's a joke, and the teacher's methodology of "teaching" us, helping us, and grading us should be, in my opinion, revised and monitored before they offer the course again. |
| Credit Transfer Issues: | I'd simply suggest to think twice before taking this course. If you're up for the challenge of working with the teacher, go for it, and I admit that maybe this semester just consisted of a bad match between our group and the professor... but it's not likely that this would be the only factor. |
